What did Maury Travis do?
Maury Travis was an American serial killer who claimed to have killed as many as 20 women but is believed to have killed at least 2 women.
A shocking videotape of Travis murdering and torturing some of his victims was found in the search of his home in Ferguson, Missouri. This led to Travis being dubbed “The Videotape Killer.” The two women he is believed to have killed were Alysia Greenwade and Betty James, whose bodies were discovered in 2001.
What happened during the investigation?
From May to October 2001, 4 more women were tortured and strangled. These women were Teresa Wilson, Verona Thompson, Yvonne Crues and Brenda Beasley. The St. Louis Post Dispatch ran a piece on the case which Travis responded to by sending an anonymous letter and computer-generated map. The letter had a return address of a bondage website. The map was confirmed to have come from expedia.com and a further investigation into this traced it straight back to Travis, which led to his arrest.
After Travis was arrested and in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service at St Louis County jail facility in Clayton, investigators discovered a torture chamber at Travis’ residence. They found a stun gun, torture instruments and newspaper clippings of his crimes, as well as the videotapes of Travis killing and abusing his victims.
In total, Travis was officially linked to 12 murders, including Mary Shields and Cassandra Walker, who were killed in 2000 and 2001 respectively, as well as the murders of the four unidentified females in 2002.
Where is Maury Travis now?
Before he could be put on trial for the murders, Travis hung himself on the 10th June, 2002, in his cell at St. Louis County jail in Missouri. Travis had been placed on suicide watch, but two consecutive checks were missed by the guards, which gave Travis the opportunity to end his life. He was 36 years of age.
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